The train to Chiang Mai takes 12 hours (says the timetable), but realistically this is always late (15 hours). Not sure why they don't just update the timetable, but there you have it. Buses we're told take less time, but sometimes (such as with overnight sleepers) slower is better. Small bit of excitement upon our arrival - we had our very first encounter with the scam where drivers will try to 'call' your hostel for directions, then tell you afterwards that the hostel has closed so that they can conveniently drive you to the hostel that they earn commission on. So when we were asked to give the hostels phone number to them (this is after we'd shown them the address and the location on a map) we promptly looked at each other, sighed, said 'scam' in unison and found another tuk-tuk. Silly billies!
We had selected another 'new to hostelworld' hostel option and again weren't disappointed. I think this was the best room we've had on our travels so far. It even served real coffee with its free breakfast, so you can imagine how excited Sean was about that.
And we found a great bar (that turned out to actually be Japanese karaoke) that served the cheapest beer we've found yet in Thailand (only 8 baht more than the beer from a man on the street). We were even convinced to join in the singing (Sean did a great rendition of Wonderwall). We then did Let It Be since the patrons all seemed to go nuts for the Beatles. They were very welcoming hosts and they had a small dog in the bar, top that with that cheap beer and you can imagine that we drank there a fair bit!
We occupied ourselves with a cooking course where we learned how to make various Thai dishes (Sean says my spring rolls were the best he's ever tasted). We realised on this course how much our tummys must have shrunk through lack of eating, because on the day you make 5 dishes and you eat them as soon as you've cooked them. That's a lot of food to consume in a few hours, especially when they don't make the portions any smaller! We were greatful for the walk back to our hostel at the end of the day!
We also took the time to do some forward planning. We had to sort out getting to Myanmar (our next country to visit) and also organize a few things for Vietnam (necessary due to more internet/phone restrictions imposed by Myanmar).
And once we'd figured all that out and we knew when we would be leaving Thailand, we realised that we had enough time to do a 'Flight of the Gibbon' experience - sliding on zip wires through the rainforest! How much fun that was! They had normal zip wires where you just sat in a harness and went, but they also had a bungy one where you jumped off the platform, sprung back up and then slid like superman down the wire (I look more like a splatted spider, but hey!), vertical drops and even a tandem...
There are markets all over Chiang Mai (there seemed to be some kind of monk inauguration event going on so lots of parades and special events that I think put this number of markets higher than normal). So again, we ate well. We also found a great little place that served cheap-as-chips specials of local fair such as Khao-Soi. Sticky rice and Mango are a favourite up here too. I had to keep reminding myself of that wedding dress (especially when I learned how much sugar is used in Thai food after our cooking course!!!!!)
And we were also 'enlightened' by how clever these Buddhists really are:
Sad to leave. It's a tough place to follow. But roads not massively travelled lay ahead of us in Myanmar.
Things I'll also remember:
1) The 'spot the odd one out' meditating monk
2) The do-it-yourself Thai BBQ that we had (we really should have done this AFTER our cooking course when we'd know what we were doing!)
Here's the rest of our photos:
No comments:
Post a Comment